Children's Books in K6
Bargain Books in K7
The books just keep flowing in. Room K6 has children's books, including picture books,
school age fiction, award winners and books for parents and teachers,
many for under $1. Room
K7 is the bargain room, where children's books are just 25 cents each, paperbacks are 50 cents, and hardcovers
are $1.00. Prices drop by half in the bargain room at 12:30 pm on
Saturday and to just $5 for each grocery
bag you fill (we supply the bags) at 2 pm. These discounts also
apply on Sunday. Both rooms are in the K wing
(see
map).

Main Book RoomIn our main room,
prices are very low.
Paperbacks are 50 cents and up, and hardcovers are $1.00 and up. This
room opens at 11 am on Saturday (two hours after the other rooms), but you can
reserve your place in the line that forms by picking up a ticket as early as 8 am.
No ticket is needed to get in.

The Palo Alto City Library will be closed on Thursday, November 11 due to the
Veteran's
Day holiday and then again on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26 for
Thanksgiving.

Reserve Computer Time at the
Library Starting November 22

A major change for the public computers in the Palo Alto Library starts this
month. Currently, you sign up to use the computers on a paper list and
then are responsible for reminding the person before you when it's your
turn. With the new system, you'll reserve your time slot via a
computer. The session of the person before you will end automatically
when your session is ready to start. Lots of other libraries already
use this approach, including all those in San Mateo County. They've found it
makes life easier for library users by enforcing fair time slots
and allowing reservations in advance.
More information.

Temporary Closure Update

The temporary closure of the Downtown Library on Thursdays has ended (it
will be closed on Thursday the 11th anyway for Veterans Day).
Meanwhile, the College Terrace branch will remain closed on Tuesdays
indefinitely.

Downtown Library Chooses Mascot

The election to choose a mascot for the Downtown Library is over, and a
clear
winner has emerged. The new mascot will be Professor Chimpson of the
National Banana Party, who ran on a pro-literacy campaign.

Suggestions?

We're always eager to hear your suggestions for ways to
improve our book sale. Please email them to us at suggestions@friendspaloaltolib.org
or mention them to a volunteer at the sale.

More Books Flooding In

"It is unbelievable how many books have come in during these past four
weeks," says Marty Paddock, our booksale manager. "Our section managers
are all complaining that they don't have enough room on their shelves." Among
the new arrivals this month is an incredible collection of naval military
history books that you'll find in our Military History section. Be sure to check these
out at the sale this Saturday and Sunday.

Bid on Inscribed Lemony Snicket Book

The Children's Room (K6) will hold a silent auction during the Saturday sale for The Slippery Slope,
inscribed by beloved children's author Lemony Snicket when he was in Palo Alto
last week. The book, described
by Snicket as "more chilling than
winter, and almost as icy", is the tenth in his A Series of
Unfortunate Events. The inscription reads, "to the highest bidder from
the lowest author". The auction will end at 2 pm on Saturday, at which
time the highest bidder can either pick up the book or receive it by mail after
payment.

Palo Alto Libraries Are #1

Not only do we Palo Altans love our libraries, we use them a lot too!
Among California libraries serving 60,000 to 100,000 people, Palo Alto ranked
first during 2002-2003 in the number of times the average resident visited a
library (15 times on average). That's almost three times as often as the statewide average of
about 5.7 visits per capita.

We also ranked first among the group by
circulating 20.5 items annually per resident, which again is about
three times as many as the state average of 7.3. Palo Alto children earned
the top slot too by checking out 60.7 items a year on average, whereas the state
norm is just 19.

Incidentally, we also 4 books in our library per capita,
coming in second to Newport Beach, which had 4.3. Perhaps Palo Altans just
like longer books? Source:
California
Library Statistics 2004.

Directors and Officers Elected at
Annual Meeting

At our annual meeting on October 27, Althea Andersen, Gretchen Emmons, Gerry Masteller, Bob Moss, Gloria Reade, Steve Staiger, and Ellen Wyman
were reelected to serve as board members through December 2006, as were new
directors Rudy Batties and Jim Schmidt. Rudy, a Palo Alto resident since 1981, holds a Stanford MBA and works in strategic marketing for technology companies.
Jim is a professor in the School of Library and Information
Sciences at San Jose State University.
The following board officers were elected for 2005: Jeff Levinsky, President; Wendy Akers-Ghose, Vice-President; Martha Schmidt, Secretary; Bob Moss, Treasurer; and Bob Otnes, Assistant Treasurer.

Mountains, Maps, and Mangers on
Specials Wall

Among the autographed books, rare first editions, and other special books across from the cashiers in the main sale room,
you'll find a 1923 first edition of The Southern Sierras of California
by Charles Francis Saunders for
just $20. The hardcover volume is illustrated with 32 photographs by the
author of various mountain and desert locales in Southern California.
Nearby is a 1911 fourth edition of Map Maneuvers and Tactical Rides
by U.S. Major Farrand Sayre, which includes a fold-out map for use in war
game practice. Our price for this book is $8. For a wonderful
holiday gift, consider Christopher Radko: The First Decade (1986-1995),
with over 200 pages of brilliant color photographs of the artist's Christmas
decorations. This first edition goes for $25.All three books are tagged
on the specials wall.

Council
to Vote on Reopening Saturdays at Downtown Library

The City Council is scheduled to revote this November 22 on whether to
restore Saturday hours at the Downtown Library. In June, the Council
allocated $35,000 for the library. The Library Advisory Commission
subsequently voted unanimously to have the funds applied to the Saturday
hours. We are very appreciative of the Council and Commission support for
reopening the library on weekends, which will make it far more accessible to
working people. See
previous coverage by us.

Singers Entertain at Annual Meeting

The "Friends of the Palo Alto Library Singers" held their premier performance at
the October 27 annual meeting, cheering the crowd with a rendition of
"In Our Library" (to the tune of "Wouldnít It Be Loverly" from My Fair Lady):

All I want is a place to read,
Lots of books for my every need,
With helpful staff indeed;
All these, are in our library.

Lots of videos for me to see,
Books on tape and now CD,
Newspapers and magazines;
All these, are in our library!

Oh, just, think of all the wonders that our branches store,
Filled with books from A to Z, plus, the Internet and more.

Storytime for each little one,
Summer reading lets teens have fun,
Famíly programs next to none;
All these, are in our library.

Archives filled with our history,
Going back for a century, plus
Modern data instantly;
All these, are in our library!

Folks in other towns may smile at us but we donít fear,
We have higher circulation and annual visits here.(spoken) Per capita.

All of this is close to me,
At our five branch library,
Keep them going glowingly
And join .. the Friends .. of the Library.
You will be
Happily
Helping the
Library.

City Council Examines
Library Alternatives

Lots of people attended the City Council library study session on Monday, November 8 to hear about many future possible directions for our library. Library Director Paula Simpson presented six options: continue with the present system, add funding, add branches, close smaller branches, affiliate with the county library system, and close the majority of branches but build a new central library. City Council members asked
many questions and provided feedback, with the consensus being to avoid plans requiring new
taxes and to retain the present branches. City staff will address Council concerns and make a specific proposal for a Council vote on December 13.
Read the
San
Jose Mercury and
Palo Alto
Weekly accounts of the Council's reactions. Read earlier articles in the
Palo Alto Weekly,
Palo Alto Daily News
(page 1), and
San Jose Mercury News regarding the controversial central library
concept.

Book Group Meets a Week Later

Our book group normally meets on the second Thursday of each month,
but that happens to fall on Veterans' Day this month. So, the group will
meet a week later on November 18, but still in the usual Fireside Room in
the Lucie Stern Community Center at 7:30 pm. This month's book is Tobias Wolff's Old School.
More information on
the book group.

Creative Uses for Books

If you're like many of our members and booksale customers, you may find
yourself with (ahem) too many books on your hands at times. Not to
worry.
An MIT project recently demonstrated how you, with a little bit of creativity and
glue, can turn all those books into reading lamps, picture frames,
benches, bookcases, clocks, umbrella stands, nightstands, and rocking
chairs. See the
pictures
of how they did it. IKEA, beware!

This notice comes to you from the non-profit
organization Friends of the Palo Alto
Library. No trees were felled in the making of this e-mail. While the Better Business Bureau recommends that no more
than 35% of a charitable organization's expenses be for management and
fundraising expenses, ours were only 4.3% for our 2003-2004 fiscal year. In other words,
about 96% of the
money we raised went to help the Palo Alto libraries. Visit our web
site. Become a member
by joining online.

Be sure to receive your own free copy of this e-mail notice so that you'll know
about all special upcoming books sales. To sign up, just e-mail
us. We carefully protect the privacy of your e-mail address. We
will not share your e-mail address with any other organization and we will not
use it for any purpose other than to send you these notices. If you do not
wish to receive these e-mail notices in the future, please
reply with the words "Remove Me" in the subject line.